Ember Schuldt shot a -3 through 15 holes of round two to drop her score to +2. The senior sits in fifth place.

Oct. 27, 2013

Kiawah Island, S.C. - The University of Illinois women's golf team finished third after the first day at the Palmetto Intercollegiate in Kiawah Island, South Carolina. Illinois trails tournament leader Kansas by seven strokes after the second round was ended before completion due to darkness Sunday night. The second round will be finished Monday morning followed by the third and final round of the tournament immediately after.

"First round we were moving along fairly well and just kind of hit a wall towards the end of the round. A couple of holes really gave us issues and we just didn't get it done. The players rebounded in round two and have things going much better," said Illini head coach Renee Slone.

Illinois sits at +20 as a team, with senior Ember Schuldt and freshman Stephanie Miller leading the individual effort for the Illini. Schuldt is currently in fifth place at +2, including an incomplete second round at -3. Miller sits tied for ninth overall at +4, and is also having a strong second round at even par. Freshman Emily Joers is tied for 20th overall at +7 and redshirt junior Sam Postillion is tied for 28th overall at +8 to sum up Illinois' solid first day performance.

"Ember is playing quite well, she and (Stephanie Miller) have definitely moved things in a positive direction," continued Slone. "Hopefully we can get a few more putts to fall here. We certainly haven't had our best yet, this golf course sets up well for us and we feel like we definitely have a good round in us and hopefully this last round we'll put all the pieces together and get four good scores."

Illinois will be looking to finish its final day of play of the 2013 fall season in style Monday, hoping to capture yet another top three finish. The action will begin early Monday morning with the completion of the second round at 7:30 CST, follow online with live scoring at golfstat.com.